"If someone had told me when I was in high school that I’d one day leave a great job and move to England to study theology, I would have said they were crazy. That is, after I asked what 'theology' is."

Book Excerpts

1

ORIGINS

An Unexpected Journey

"You would completely misunderstand all I’m about to tell you if you didn’t first know that studying theology at Oxford represents the complete opposite of everything I ever wanted growing up. If someone had told me when I was in high school that I’d one day leave a great job and move to England to study theology, I would have said they were crazy. That is, after I asked what 'theology' is." . . .

• • •

"At twenty-five, I found myself saying good-bye to the kind of career I’d dreamed of as a young boy worrying about things like rent and grocery bills and whether we’d stay in this house for more than a couple years. I was, of course, still the same little boy inside, lusting after a career that promised security for my family. And having no promise of security on the other side of this move scared me. Leaving a great job to go after what I believed God was calling me to felt irresponsible.

So I left my job with a cardboard bankers box in my hands and tears in my eyes, unsure of where this journey would lead us, but confident that this first step was the right one. Short of a calling that somehow came from beyond the two of us, there was no way Jen or I would have ever considered leaving behind all the comforts we enjoyed. We said good-bye to the only friends and family we had ever known, and I found myself sitting in an airport staring out at the tarmac waiting to board my flight to England. And it was there, waiting on this side of the Atlantic, that I found myself thinking, This is going to change the rest of our lives. . . . What in the world have I done?